Dragon's Fake Wedding Date - Riley Storm Page 0,49

life, I don’t know where I’m going. How can I handle a relationship at this point in time? I can’t commit to anything.”

Rann was quiet for a long time as he processed that information.

“I don’t want to rush you,” he said quietly at last. “And that’s what you’re feeling right now, rushed. If you want to take things slower, that’s fine too. Whatever you need, I will do, but I’m not going to stay silent and pretend like I don’t care for you either. I can’t do that.”

Gayle opened her mouth, but he wasn’t done, and he kept speaking, his head facing straight ahead the entire time.

“If you tell me you don’t want me, if you reject me, I will leave you alone. That I promise. But I won’t lie to you and pretend like it’s what I want. I won’t pretend to feel a way I don’t. And truthfully, I hope that you won’t either, simply because it hasn’t been ‘long enough’. That’s an arbitrary amount of time. There’s no set length someone has to be single. If you like me, I want you to admit it. If that makes sense.”

This time, she didn’t try to reply right away. He was telling her that if she truly did not care for him, he would go. Would leave her alone. But he was also calling her out, saying that if she did have feelings for him, she should own that, instead of pretending she didn’t simply so she could stay single for ‘the right amount of time’.

It was the most open and blunt that he’d gotten with her yet. Openly admitting to caring for her and saying he would no longer hide that fact.

How do I feel about him?

She didn’t know. Not entirely. There was just so much she didn’t know about him.

“Will you take me up the mountain?” she asked, not sure where the question came from, but knowing it was what she wanted to ask, nonetheless.

“What?” Rann asked, caught off-guard. “Why?”

“Because,” she said simply. “If I’m going to figure out where I stand, then I need to know more about you. About the real you. I’ve seen your lair. You’ve seen my house. But now I want to see where you live. I want to meet your family, those people most important to you. Everything has been about me so far. Now it needs to be about you, so that I can make an informed decision.”

Rann pondered that, then he shrugged, the motion bumping her slightly in his arms. Gayle yelped slightly and clutched tighter to him, her fingers closing around a bicep.

“We can do that,” Rann said, banking abruptly in mid-air, his arms holding her tight.

“Thank you,” she said, her arms snaking up to wrap around his neck as she cuddled in right close to him.

She stayed that way for the rest of the flight. It felt good to be like that with him. Regardless of what form he took.

What am I going to find when we get to his home though, I wonder?

She was going to learn soon enough.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Gayle

They had just landed when her stomach gurgled impossibly loudly.

Still in his arms, the last gust of wind from his wings still filtering out into the afternoon air, there was no escaping acknowledging it.

Great. The first thing I do upon seeing his place is get hungry. How typical.

“Hungry?” he joked.

“Maybe a bit,” she said, looking around.

They were on a gently sloping hillside that ran downhill from a sheer mountain cliffside and disappeared into a forest of trees below. Small cabin-like houses dotted the area in a shallow arc. At their center was a giant hole in the mountain.

“What’s that?” she asked, noting several figures walking out of the hole.

“That’s where we can go to get food,” he chuckled.

“Okay.” She didn’t understand.

“The cabins are our living areas. Our houses,” Rann explained as he set her down.

She pulled off his oversized sweatshirt that she’d put on for the journey and gave it to him to put on. It had kept her warm in the sky, but she didn’t understand how he wasn’t boiling now that they’d landed. Even up here on the mountain, it was a hot day.

“Right. I figured that,” she said.

“In there is Clan Atrox’s communal stuff. All our facilities. There’s a couple of bars, training gyms, library, meeting rooms and all that fun stuff. It’s all built into a massive cavern. You’ll see,” he said, eagerly tugging at her hand, leading her toward the opening.

Gayle laughed